Chinese top leaders call for efforts to aid quake zone
8 September Xinhua ,BBC
President Hu Jintao and other top leaders called for immediate
efforts to help with disaster relief work in southwest China, where
multiple earthquakes have killed at least 67 people.Hu, who is in
Russia's city of Vladivostok for an annual economic leaders' meeting of
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, said authorities
should work to ensure safety of lives and property in the quake zone.
Other top leaders, including top legislator Wu Bangguo, premier Wen
Jiabao, vice premier Hui Liangyu, Central Military Commission Vice
Chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou also made instructions for rescue
work.In a meeting on relief work held en route to the quake zone,
Premier Wen stressed that efforts to save lives should come first to
minimize casualties.He said intensified efforts will be needed to take
care of the injured, as well as restore infrastructure facilities that
were damaged to facilitate the rescue work.
The premier asked authorities to provide adequate supplies of water,
food, clothing and shelter for local residents affected by the
quakes.After withstanding the test of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake,
China is confident and capable in its ability to cope with natural
disasters, he said.
Two quakes measuring 5.7 and 5.6 on the Richter scale hit a border
area near Yiliang in Yunnan and Weining county in Guizhou province at
11:19 a.m. and 12:16 p.m. Friday, respectively.So far 67 people have
been confirmed dead and 731 others injured.
Rescuers in Yunnan Province said on Friday night they had reached 90
percent of the six quake-hit counties under Zhaotong, where a total of
740,000 people had been affected by the quakes.The disaster has so far
incurred 3.5 billion yuan (551 million U.S. dollars) in direct economic
losses, Yunnan's civil affairs department said.Officials in Guizhou said
two people were injured and lives of nearly 28,000 people were disrupted
in Weining county.
A series of earthquakes has hit south-west China, leaving at least 64
people dead and 715 injured, state-run media say. The quakes struck the
border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, with the largest felt at 11:19
Beijing time (03:19 GMT), Xinhua news agency said.
The US Geological Survey registered the two strongest of the series
of quakes at 5.6 magnitude. The quakes affected mostly mountainous areas
that saw landslides, reports say. Premier Wen Jiabao is making his way
to the area, according to Xinhua. Zhang Junwei, a spokesman from the
Yunnan seismological bureau, told the Associated Press (AP) agency that
most of the deaths were from Yunnan's Yiliang county.
"The casualty number is still being compiled. I don't know what was
like for the other towns, but my town got hit badly," another government
official in Yiliang told AP. No deaths have been reported in Guizhou so
far.
Aid agencies say they are concerned about the plight of children in
the two provinces following the quakes. "We are especially worried about
those who may have been separated from their parents, as more
aftershocks are expected to hit the area," Save the Children in China
Country Director Pia MacRae said.The death toll may rise further,
especially in areas affected by landslides, Xinhua says.
"Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb the mountains to reach
hard-hit villages," Li Fuchun, head of Yunnan's Luozehe town, was quoted
as saying. Xinhua reported that at least 100,000 people have been
evacuated and earlier reports said that more than 20,000 houses were
damaged. Mobile and regular phone service in the area was experiencing
disruption, according to reports.
Hundreds of local residents had gathered on streets littered with
bricks and rocks, television footage from state-run broadcaster CCTV
showed.
Users of the Twitter-like wesbite Weibo reported people rushing out
of shaking office buildings, and photos posted online also showed
streets strewn with rubble. Hotel staff in the city of Zhaotong in
Yunnan told the BBC that the quake shook the building, knocking things
from tables and shelves, reports the BBC's John Sudworth.
They said that people had been asked to leave their rooms and traffic
had stopped in the streets, but there are no signs of panic, our
correspondent adds.
Local officials said teams had been sent to distribute tents and
blankets to those affected.
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